#StandwithLANC on our Day of Giving 2024

Legal Aid of North Carolina will celebrate our second annual Day of Giving on September 25. You can help us meet our $100,000 fundraising goal (we're already 18% there!) by signal-boosting our social media posts, spreading the word among your personal and professional networks, and by making your own financial show of support.

Thank you to early bird sponsors Jeff Kelly of Nelson Mullins; Winston & Strawn; and Bradley Arant Boult Cummings.

Learn more and give today!

Submit your pro bono hours!

Don't forget! Submit your pro bono/low bono hours from 2023 and 2024 so we can honor our most committed volunteers and contract attorneys during next month's National Celebration of Pro Bono. To submit your hours, simply email them to the case coordinator or attorney you've been working with.

Questions? Email us at probono@legalaidnc.org.

Now hiring: Supervising attorney for pro bono

Are you an experienced NC attorney with a passion for pursuing justice for low-income clients and an ability to form relationships within the private bar? If so, we want you to apply to become the next full-time Supervising Attorney on our Pro Bono Programs team! Click learn more below to read the job description and submit your application.

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Fair Housing Act and reasonable accommodations

Thu, Oct 3, 12 - 1:30 PM · Virtual

Sign up now for our October 3 CLE, Introduction to Reasonable Accommodations and Enforcement Under the Fair Housing Act. Attendees will earn 1.5 hours of general credits while learning about a powerful tool to help people with disabilities access and preserve housing.

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Volunteers: Use discount code LANCVolunteer (case sensitive) for free registration

Save the date! A Not-So-Scary Pro Bono Primer

Thu, Oct 24, 12 - 1 PM · Virtual

October may be the month to celebrate all things spooky, but there's nothing scary about pro bono service with Legal Aid of North Carolina. Join us October 24 from 12 to 1 p.m. for A Not-So-Scary Pro Bono Primer, a virtual one-hour CLE about pro bono service that takes only a few hours and requires no experience. Attendees will earn one hour of General CLE credit (pending State Bar approval).

Save the date! Domestic violence CLE in Raleigh

Wed, Oct 30, 3 - 7:30 PM · Virtual and in person

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM), a time to shine the spotlight on this all-too-pervasive problem and recommit ourselves to solving it. Our Raleigh field office will mark the occasion by holding its annual DVAM CLE, held in person and broadcast live from Campbell Law on October 30 from 3 to 7:30 p.m. The event will feature a presentation from Poyner Spruill attorney and Legal Aid NC pro bono volunteer Steve Epstein, and a panel discussion featuring prominent state judges. Attendees will earn four hours of General CLE credit (pending State Bar approval).

Nicole Mueller

A Supervising Attorney on our Pro Bono Programs team and Disaster Relief Project for the last few years, Nicole Mueller was recently promoted to Housing Project Manager in our Greensboro office. While on our Pro Bono team, Nicole launched and directed our Heir Property Pro Bono Project, which recruits private attorneys to help heir property owners secure clear title to their homes and land.

Congratulations, Nicole!

Avery Marsh

Meet Avery Marsh, a new Case Coordinator on our Pro Bono Programs team. A Raleigh resident and Chapel Hill native, Avery has a paralegal certificate and bachelor's from UNC Chapel Hill. She has worked as a web developer and has a certificate in artificial intelligence from Stanford University.

Welcome, Avery!

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Right to Education Project

Our Right to Education Project (REP) is our statewide education-justice project. REP works to end the school-to-prison pipeline and ensure that students in NC public schools receive the quality education they're entitled to. REP pro bono volunteers work with students and their guardians on issues related to access to education, including disability accommodations, special education, and exclusionary discipline practices.

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Aishaah Reed Foster · Moore & Van Allen

Charlotte

This summer, our Smoky Mountain Offices in Sylva and Murphy found themselves short staffed. They had a lot of domestic violence clients but not enough staff attorneys to serve them. They needed help.

Naturally, we turned to our steadfast supporters in the private bar to bridge the gap. We launched a pilot effort to recruit attorneys who could provide pro bono legal advice over the phone to survivors preparing to appear pro se at their hearing for a Domestic Violence Protective Order.

Aishaah Reed Foster, a Moore & Van Allen attorney in Charlotte, was one of the many private practitioners who answered our call for help. In fact, she answered the call more than once, serving multiple clients over the course of the pilot period.

Notably, her service was completely self-motivated. She wasn't "volun-told" by a superior, arm twisted by a colleague, or even persuaded by our Pro Bono Programs team! She simply saw the need and stepped up to help.

Not surprisingly, Aishaah's commitment to seeking justice for domestic violence survivors runs deep. Later this month, she will become a Champion in the Charlotte Triage Pro Bono Partnership's domestic violence area of focus. Charlotte Triage is a citywide effort of law firms, corporate legal departments and legal services organizations to harness the power of pro bono to meet residents' most pressing legal needs.

As a Champion in the domestic violence area, Aishaah will help lead the partnership's efforts to provide pro bono services to survivors in partnership with Legal Aid of North Carolina and Safe Alliance, an organization that provides holistic services to survivors, including legal advocacy.

This won't be Aishaah's first involvement with Safe Alliance. Last year, Moore & Van Allen sponsored Walk A Mile with Safe Alliance, a successful fundraiser that Aishaah helped bring about as a member of the firm's committee responsible for organizing the event.

As to what motivates her efforts on behalf of domestic violence survivors, Aishaah says, "As a domestic violence survivor myself, I know how intimidating the entire process can be. I feel a responsibility to be a safe resource for other survivors navigating their way through the court system in an attempt to reclaim their lives."

Thank you for all you do, Aishaah!

Learn more about Aishaah